The Golden Chersonese and The Way Thither, page 9 by Isabella L. Bird (Mrs Bishop)
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alized every day how much truth there is in the dictum of Socrates--"The body is a hindrance to acquiring knowledge, and sight and hearing are not to be trusted."* [*Phaedo of Plato.
Chapter x.
]This volume is mainly composed of my actual letters, unaltered, except by various omissions and some corrections as to matters of fact. The interest of my visits to the prison and execution ground of Canton, and of my glimpses of Anamese villages, may, I hope, be in some degree communicated to my readers, even though Canton and Saigon are on the beaten track of travelers.
I am quite aware that "Letters" which have not received any literary dress are not altogether satisfactory either to author or reader, for the author sacrifices artistic arrangement and literary merit, and the reader is apt to find himself involved among repetitions, and a multiplicity of minor details, treated in a fashion which he is inclined to term "slipshod;" but, on the whole, I think that descriptions written on the spot, even with their disadvantages, are the best mode of making the reader travel with the traveler, and share his first impressions in their original vividness. With these explanatory remarks I add my little volume to the ever-growing library of the literature of travel.
I. L. B. FEBRUARY, 1883
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER
The Aurea Chersonesus--The Conquest of Malacca--The Straits Settlements--The Configuration of the Peninsula--A Terra Incognita-- The Monsoons--Products of the Peninsula--The Great Vampire--Beasts and Reptiles--Malignant and Harmless Insects--Land and Water Birds-- Traditions of Malay Immigration--Wild and Civilized Races--Kafirs-- The Samangs and Orang-outang--Characteristics of the Jakuns-- Babas and Sinkehs--The Malay Physiognomy--Language andLiterature-- Malay Poetry and Music--Malay Astronomy--Education and Law--Malay Sports--Domestic Habits--Weapons--Slavery and De